Jonathan Davis

Davis had a very troubled childhood as he faced the atrocity of his parents’ divorce, physical torture by his stepmother, sexual abuse by a family friend and incessant bullying at school. All of these experiences he uses in his music.

He was married to Renee Perez from 1998-2001 and has a son with her, Nathan. He was married for the second time to a former pornographic actress Deven Davis in 2004. They have two sons together - Pirate and Zeppelin.

In 2006, Davis developed idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), which is a rare bleeding disorder. He was bedridden for days because of this disease and now takes medication to keep it in control.

Jonathan Davis was born in Bakersfield, California, to Rick Davis and Holly Chavez. His father was a keyboardist for Buck Owens and Frank Zappa and his mother was an actress and a professional dancer.

When Davis was only three years old, his parents separated and his father took him in to raise him with his new wife Lily. As a child he suffered from acute asthma.

Davis had a terrible childhood as he was abused sexually and emotionally as a child. He particularly had a horrible relationship with his stepmother who used to physically torture him, a reason why his father later divorced her.

He attended the Highland High School and graduated from there in 1989. He also went to the San Francisco School of Mortuary Science. Because he was a bit different than others, Davis was always a victim of bullying at school.

From 1987, Davis started to DJ while he was still in the high school under his alter-ego ‘JDevil’. He often did DJing for his high school parties and his favorite genres were ‘New York Freestyle’, ‘Miami bass’, ‘Goth’, etc.

Jeff Creath, a producer and owner of Underground Chicken Sounds recording studio, allowed Davis to live in his garage and within sometime the band ‘Korn’ developed. They began playing gigs and got noticed while performing at Huntington Beach in 1993.

His first album with his band ‘Korn’ was released in 1994, titled ‘Korn’ under Immortal/Epic Records. The theme of the album was something close to Davis’ heart—child abuse and drugs. It peaked at seventy-two on the Billboard 200.

From 1996-1999, Korn did ‘Life is Peachy (1996)’ which went double platinum in the States, ‘Follow the Leader (1998)’ which peaked at number one on Billboard 200 and ‘Issues (1999) which was promoted by the tour ‘Sick and Twisted’.

Korn’s fifth studio album ‘Untouchables’ released in 2002 and became an instant hit with the metal fans, which helped it in getting certified platinum. Apart from selling 5 million copies worldwide, its single ‘Here to Stay’ won a Grammy.

Davis has done small cameos in movies and television series like: ‘Queen of the Damned’, ‘Seeing Other People’, ‘The Still Life’, ‘Sin-Jin Smyth’, ‘Monk’, ‘The Man Show’, ‘South Park’, etc.

Davis’ stepmother used to make him drink a tea mixed with Thai hot oil and jalapeno juice during his illness, to abuse him.

He was bullied at high school for wearing eyeliner, long clothes and always listening to new wave music. He was also called homophobic names.